The fourth edition of ‘Rangoltsav’, a festival of short plays held at M.D. Ramanathan Hall, Palakkad, saw a marked rise in the number of theatre enthusiasts from the previous three editions. Ten plays of 10 minutes duration each were staged during the fete and each of them featured a minimum of 10 actors.
Among the plays that were staged, ‘House for Sale’, directed by Puthoor Ravi, a veteran theatre activist and actor, was particularly noteworthy. It dealt with the flaws of the system that pushes three members of a family into committing suicide.
The play ‘Akri’, directed by Asokan Rajeevam, effortlessly portrayed the predicament of a sickly old man left to the mercy of the society by his children.
‘Piano’, directed by Ravi Thaikkad, focussed on the life of a young piano player who finds himself confined to a wheelchair. His father’s unbounded affection helps the youngster return to normalcy.
‘Death Sellers Private Limited’, directed by Jisha, dealt with a future scenario when even death rites would be managed by private companies, while Sreeji Nair’s ‘Camera’ was a shot at voyeurism. ‘Riders to the Sea’ by Vishnu Prasad is about a fishing family losing all its three male members to the sea, and the inevitability that is death.
‘Kaniv’, directed by Sekharipuram Madhavan, was yet another play that dealt with a contemporary theme – the issue of natural disasters, the victims’ efforts to survive the loss of their kith and kin and their property and the official apathy towards them. The play ‘Santa Maria’, directed by Akshay Kumar, could not convey much.
‘Kathayude Kendra Bindu’, despite being rooted in an O. Henry story, and directed by M. S. Raghu, was another play that failed to impress the audience.
